Google+ - Professional Social Network?

Some people are starting to wonder whether Google+ will continue to grow and become a major social network. Even for Google, it will be quite an achievement to penetrate the already relatively crowded world of social networks and become a major player.

Indeed they have had an excellent start and in my opinion built quite a nice little service. (By the way, do not underestimate how much they must have spent designing, building and now deploying Google+. I call it a 'nice little service' but I know we are talking many millions of dollars.)

Here's what one pundit said as criticism in a recent article:

"In that respect, is it possible that G+, at the moment, is simply a social media step too far? Are there only so many daily destination-and-connection sites a person can invest time and effort overseeing?

As Forbes.com contributor Paul Tassi wrote last month within a column doubling as a eulogy for the service, "The fact is, very few people have room to manage many multiple social networks ... since there is only so much time in the day to waste on the Internet. Add in Google+, effectively a duplicate of Facebook, and there just isn't space for it." (fromWorse than a Ghosttown)

I am not sure. I use Facebook for personal and family networks, and have relatively few business contacts on it. To date, I've used LinkedIn for my business contacts. But LinkedIn is not a social network in the sense of Facebook.

Maybe that will be Google Plus' niche: the professional social network.